(Reuters) - A wooden boat carrying 166 people from southeastern Nigeria
capsized about 40 nautical miles off the coast, with only two known
survivors, emergency services and local traders said on Tuesday.
The
boat left on Friday from the remote town of Oron, in Cross Rivers
state, across the Gulf of Guinea and was heading to Gabon, in central
Africa, traders said.
David Akate, head of Cross Rivers emergency services, confirmed the incident but said he had no death toll yet.
He
added that the two known survivors were a young boy and a woman who had
clung to a gas cylinder and were rescued by fishermen.
"They are
mostly Igbo traders from the southeast who headed to Oron to board the
wooden boat because it was cheaper," said Ikechukwu Egwu, a marine
transporter in the area.
Boat accidents are relatively common in
Africa, where safety standards are poor. As many as 138 people died when
an overloaded boat carrying passengers and goods capsized in rough
water on a river in Democratic Republic of Congo in 2010.
Some 35 people taking this route from Nigeria to Gabon died after their boat sunk off the coast of Cameroon in 2008.
SOURCE: REUTERS
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